India’s St. Botanica aiming to achieve sales of $13m this year by bringing global trends to the domestic market

The brand was established in 2015 by personal care firm Emmbros Overseas, which also owns four other brands including Oriental Botanics and Man Arden.

The brands are available on its official websites as well as leading e-commerce platforms in India, including Amazon, Flipkart and Nykaa. It is also available offline through several retail counters.

In the past year, the company managed to grow and profit despite the chaos of the pandemic. Founder Sahil Mehta attributed this to the brand’s wide-ranging product portfolio and its strong digital presence.

He told CosmeticsDesign-Asia​ that the company intends to use this momentum to achieve its goal of gross sales of INR 100 crore by this financial year.

“We have a very strong range of products coming up soon and we believe these products would be the next trendsetters in the Indian beauty market. We are very confident that we will be doing very good business with our upcoming products.”​

One of the brand’s big launches this year is a range of skin care products with simple and straightforward formulations that are filled with tried-and-true actives such as lactic acid, salicylic acid and niacinamide.

“What we are trying to do with our new range is to declare the percentage of our actives right on the label so there is complete transparency about everything. There’s a huge demand for transparency right now and it come from the global influence from brands like The Ordinary,”​ said Mehta.

He added that in keeping with the brand, the new range will also have a botanical aspect to it.

“This range is a combination of scientific and botanical. There’s a very good story behind it. The concept will appeal to people who want both natural ingredients and scientific backing.”​

Future plans for expansion

In addition to this skin care range, the company is also developing its bath and body category as there has been a greater emphasis on personal hygiene and more time spent indoors during this time.

“We’ve already launched around 15 to 20 body washes previously but in the coming months we are aiming to expand with products such as body mists,”​ said Mehta.

He continued: “St. Botanicals is not just about skin care; we want to offer something for everyone. We want to have everything under one roof. The aim is to become a one-stop shop, similar to The Body Shop and be a complete beauty brand.”​

At the same time, the company is working to expand the brand’s presence across India.

Given the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic, the company will be focusing its investments on e-commerce.

However, the firm is aspiring to strengthen its brick-and-mortar footprint with standalone stores.

“The offline market has huge potential because it still contributes about 95% in India. The future plans would be to set up exclusive stores. We’re want to set up a number of across India, especially in the metro cities. We want these stores to be walk-in experience for the customer.”​